The Chosen Four
by xxSkitten
Summary: A pair of drabbles about the friendship and tight bonds between the Chosen Four. The second one is mainly Jeff/Poo based.
1. Intuition

Being the eldest of the group, Poo had become accustomed to questions from his younger and infinitely curious teammates, ranging from questions about his culture to tidbits of obligatory smalltalk. He had even had Jeff come to him once about a machine the young genius couldn't figure out how to fix, though the prince, unsurprisingly, wasn't of much help.

Sometimes, when the group morale was low, he'd also be there to console them the best he could. He enjoyed it—it reminded him of home, where the villagers would seek condolences from the young prince and he, having the patience and empathy of a sage due to his vigorous training, would gladly oblige. Compared to the trials he had faced on Daalam, boosting the morale of his comrades came easy, and he was grateful to help.

Then, there were some times where Poo was the one who felt like he needed condolences. It didn't happen often, but if the prince happened to think of certain things for too long, his thought process would take a downward spiral, and he'd end up tensing during his meditation, trapped in his swirling mind. He'd worry about what monsters lie ahead, go through different scenarios of him and his teammates dying and try to ignore his twinging heart when he thought of never seeing his home again.

But somehow, whenever he sat in silence with these thoughts, the other three would catch on immediately.

"What'cha thinkin' about?" Ness would ask with a carefree smile, seeming oblivious as ever even as his cheery voice snapped him out of his whirlwind of thoughts.

"Are you alright? Do you have a fever or something?" Paula would worriedly inquire, acting as if he were writhing in pain rather than sitting innocently in silence.

"You're looking more thoughtful than usual…" Jeff would quietly point out, his voice wavering with shyness, though his intuition came from wisdom that far surpassed his young age.

His ears would burn with shame, embarrassed that he had shown weakness to his younger peers, but upon telling the truth to those attentively-listening ears, he would find an unfamiliar satisfaction, a relief only found by confiding in your best friends. If a princely burden was kept squarely on his shoulders back home, it was now shared among four people, feeling light as a feather to he who once carried mountains.


	2. Mutual Comfort

Poo often was the last of the four to fall asleep, leaving him to his thoughts once again as he glanced at their sleeping faces. Ness and Paula slept together in the same bed, their backs always seeming to end up touching by the time morning came, and Jeff, when he wasn't working through the night fixing one thing or another, slept beside him, and the prince had to be careful not to move too much lest he wake him, the scientist's son a light sleeper.

Whenever Jeff was up working through the night, Poo accompanied him in his wakefulness, watching Jeff quietly and without comment. At first, he would look away whenever the blonde's emerald gaze wandered near his own, as the prince had learned that being watched made Jeff nervous, though after a while he seemed to grow used to it and even met the prince's gaze with a little nod whenever Poo was caught observing. One thing that always stayed the same was that when Jeff was done with his current object of interest, the two of them would converse in a low voice as not to wake Ness and Paula, though Jeff assured him that the pair could sleep through the end of the world without waking.

It was through this nightly ritual, done once or twice a week, that Jeff became the one Poo was most familiar with, and vice versa. The prince learned that Jeff was a bit estranged from his parents, went to a prestigious boarding school (by obligation rather than choice, he had added hesitantly) and had a best friend named Tony who he missed on a fairly regular basis. Jeff, in return, had gained more knowledge about him than most had the privilege to know—deep down, Poo was a pacifist, something he couldn't reveal back home without disappointment from his master, who had given seemingly endless time to train him into a powerful warrior, and being a prince had made him very popular with the ladies back home—the latter information invoking a quiet laugh shared between the two.

Later, in the time after they had disbanded, he would think back to those times and, after he had thought of Ness, of Paula, of them as a group, and then—for just a little bit longer—he would think of Jeff, wondering if he ever got to reunite with his best friend, and silently missing those old times where the weight of Giygas was temporarily discarded in favor of those short late-night talks.


End file.
